Dublin City Council facing shortfall of €18.5m for homelessness services

Currently there are 3,307 people in emergency accommodation in the Dublin region

DUBLIN’S city council is facing a “serious budgetary deficit” of some €18.5m due to the escalating cost of homelessness services.

A report presented at tonight’s monthly meeting of the city council by Assistant Chief Executive Dick Brady outlined the council management’s concerns about the shortfall.

Mr Brady warned that the deficit could affect services.

The council has now decided to release contingency funds of €5.1m to try and ease the cash flow problem. Other local authorities will be asked to provide around €2m to the fund also.

The council had sought an allocation of €55m from the Department of the Environment but was allocated €37.1m. The estimated cost of services for 2015 is €68m and council management are continuing negotiations with the Government for additional funding.

Last year the Government allocated €35m in funding which covered 62pc of the homelessness budget.

Currently there are 3,307 people in emergency accommodation in the Dublin region according to the report- 1,122 of those are children.

At the moment 796 children are living in commercial hotels around the capital.